


It's Not Un-fuse-ual

by PuppyLuver256



Series: Second Chances for Swirled Eyes [1]
Category: Mario & Luigi RPG (Video Games), Super Mario & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bad Puns, Gen, Mindscape Shenanigans, character fusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 18:09:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11697075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuppyLuver256/pseuds/PuppyLuver256
Summary: A menace from the past returns in the strangest of ways, and Luigi gets caught up in something he didn't quite think would be possible. Shenanigans ensue.(original release dates August 19, 2015-September 16, 2015)





	1. A Strange Encounter

A lump of some sort of dark, sludgy substance plummeted from the high branch of an otherwise unassuming tree along an equally unassuming walking path, landing on the ground with a sickening splat. It remained immobile for a bit, then inexplicably seemed to slide uphill. As it slid, it began to find and gravitate toward more bits of dark substance similar to itself, engulfing the stray bits and becoming larger as it did so. An unnatural energy radiated from the dark object as it grew, an energy that would set anyone on-edge if they were near.

The object stopped for a bit, then a thin appendage shot out from its side, a spindly arm ending with a clawed hand. An identical arm shot from the other side, then two piercing red swirls lit up on its front like eyes. A sickening grin spread on what could now be properly described as its face. The creature was a ball of undiluted emotions, full of sick glee and exhilaration, but mostly it was full of one very strong emotion in particular.

Fury.

\-----

Luigi was making his way down the well-worn path, carrying a grocery bag and shaking his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe you forgot the chicken on alfredo night, Mario,” he muttered to himself. He thanked the stars that he was already in town, otherwise they would’ve either had to have a late dinner or drag out some frozen dinners from the freezer and put off alfredo night _again_.

As Luigi continued on his way home, he had a sudden and jarring sensation that stopped him in his tracks. He thought at first it was just an odd smell, a smell like something had died nearby. Something about being an unwilling ghost hunter makes you recognize the smell of dead things, though, and unless the dead whatever in question was a particularly rancid thing in life, this was a MUCH worse smell than just death. Shortly after recognizing the smell, Luigi realized he could feel every single hair standing on end, like static shortly before a thunderstorm. Something about the combination of the sensations had a twinge of familiarity, but Luigi couldn’t quite place it. Either way, it made him incredibly nervous.

It was then that he finally saw it. A strange, vaguely child-shaped, humanoid _thing_ was laying along the side of the road. There were dangerous-looking black sparks radiating from all over its form, and it seemed to be missing a limb or two. As Luigi approached it, he could see there were spindly black limbs in their place. Something made him uneasy about this, and not just the fact that a supposed unconscious disfigured child was on the ground in front of him that he now realized seemed to be the source of the ominous aura he had walked into. “Uh...hello?” Luigi asked nervously. “Are...are you okay?” The figure made a small, unintelligible noise that was muffled by its face being practically shoved in the dirt. “Uh, excuse me?”

“...ur...y...”

Something about the way that sounded struck a chord in Luigi’s memory. He felt he should leave, but at the same time he couldn’t bring himself to just abandon someone who was clearly injured. “Wh...what did you say?!” he gasped.

Shakily, the figure stood up, laughing in an incredibly creepy manner. Luigi realized far too late that he should have run when he saw the figure’s green skin, the nearly opaque swirled glasses, and the horridly demented toothy grin that gave the impression of a dislodged jaw. “I...had the saying...” the now familiar person in front of him chuckled darkly, “...I...have...FURY!!” A scream rang out, though it was unclear whether it had come from Luigi or the maniacal Bean that had suddenly lunged at him in a rage.

“F-Fawful—?” Luigi gasped partially from disbelief, but mostly due to having been knocked onto the ground. “How are you back? Just... _how?!_ ”

“Green mustache!” Fawful shouted, his words dripping with the fury he had declared his possession of, ignoring Luigi’s barely audible question. “The first delicious step to my comeback will be the ending of you!”

Fawful made to punch Luigi in the face, but Luigi twisted his head away just in time and countered with a kick to the stomach. Fawful rolled off the green-clad plumber, the wind having been thoroughly knocked out of him. Luigi jumped back up to his feet. He mentally cursed himself for not taking his hammer with him wherever, but it’s not like he was one to expect a sudden attack at any time, especially from someone he had presumed well and truly dead for years. Besides, it seemed that Fawful was unarmed as well, so they were on equal footing...at least, he hoped that was the case. He ran at Fawful, prepared to do whatever it took to neutralize this returning threat before anything got serious.

It was then that he felt something pierce his brain. The blackened, spindly arm of Fawful was jutting out of his own skull, dark energy sparking all around it. The sadistic grin on Fawful’s face noticeably faltered. Whatever he had planned to do with that strike, this clearly wasn’t what he had in mind. “Have letting go!” Fawful shouted in a panic.

“I would if I could!” Luigi screamed in an equally panicky state. “Get your freaky arm outta my head!”

Fawful tried desperately to pull his disfigured arm out of Luigi’s head, and in equal desperation Luigi tried to push Fawful away. They both propped up a leg to use as leverage to separate themselves, and it was only when they started to tilt over that they both realized that had been a terrible idea for either of them to execute. Before they could rectify their mutual mistake, the two fighters toppled over and began to roll down the surprisingly steep hill they had been on, Fawful’s residual darkness swirling as they rolled with increasing speed.

Their vision had been obscured by the dark swirling vortex surrounding them shortly before the impact with the rock made them both black out.

\-----

He slowly opened his eyes. The sky was a vibrant orange and the sun had nearly set; clearly a considerable amount of time had passed since the scuffle knocked him out. Damn, exactly how long had he been out? He tried to stand, but was having a difficult time of it, as if he weren’t used to his own body. He rubbed his temples, his head aching considerably. He looked around, but the other guy was nowhere to be seen. That could be either good or very, very bad. At his feet he saw the package of chicken hanging out of its bag, nearly torn apart in the fight. Strange, while half of him felt extremely disappointed by the loss of the meat, which had been fairly expensive for what it was, another part of him didn’t really care. He managed to break his oddly indifferent gaze from the now-ruined chicken, adjusted his hat and glasses and—

Wait. Hat _and_ glasses?

It was then that he took the time to do what he should have done before anything else and examined himself. He seemed uninjured, though there was an unidentifiable tingling all over. That wasn’t what was making him start to freak out, though. There was a foreign weight on his shoulders which he soon identified as a cape. A cape and overalls, which...also seemed foreign. He took off the somewhat-familiar hat and looked at it. The emblem on its front, once a bright green “L” on white, was now a creepy grinning face with swirled eyes. Part of him was disturbed, another part somewhat amused, but his entire being knew this was just another addition to the piling up signs of something having gone horribly wrong.

He then noticed a small creek that he had woken up beside. He approached it and nervously leaned over to look at himself. To his horror, though not necessarily unsuspected by now, what he saw was neither Luigi nor Fawful. The shape of his face was mostly Luigi-like, with the large nose and mustache from the green plumber present, but his skin was the bright green present in the complexion of most Beanish people and his hair was much darker, almost black. He opened his mouth and, to make sure his reflection wasn’t further screwing with him, ran his tongue across his overly large teeth. What startled him most about his new face were the eyes, clearly visible through the transparent glasses he now wore. Despite the obvious confusion in the expression, they had a soft, warm gaze, yet with an unsettling sense of mania hidden within. One eye was a friendly blue, while the other a piercing red.

He wanted to scream. In fact, he already was screaming—two voices in his mind, shouting and panicking in a discordant maelstrom of fright-fueled thought. Problem is, he was afraid to speak, afraid of what sort of voice would be made from his now singular larynx, and in what syntax. He knew he wouldn’t be able to hold back the urge to verbalize what the dual voices were shouting for long, though. “W-what is on-going—er, going on?” he asked breathlessly. “How does this have possibility?”

“This is all on you, Fawful, I just know it!” he shouted to...himself? “What was even up with your freaky arm?!”

“Have the up-shut, fink-rat!” he retorted, again to himself. “I was not knowing the capabilities of the darkness which still had presence.” Both minds within his shared head then realized how strange he looked talking to himself like this. “I have gladness no one is around to be seeing this,” he admitted. “We would have the appearance of silliness, or insanity.”

_Is that really too far from the case for you?_ Luigi’s voice snarkily said in his mind. Apparently he had decided to take their conversation to the mindscape.

_Again, have the up-shut,_ Fawful mentally snarled. _How will we gain separation?_

Luigi groaned. _I can’t believe I’m stuck having to listen to your strange brand of language for...as long as we’re gonna be stuck like this._

“There has to be some way we can have fixing this problem...” he murmured to himself. “Maybe we should go find Mar—” He couldn’t even finish the sentence without realizing how terrible that would be. Not only would Mario be incredibly suspicious of the Fawful qualities to his combined form, the Fawful part of his mind would just LOVE the opportunity to get rid of one of the fink-rats that had ruined his life and would probably force some sort of mental dominance play to achieve that, and while that sounded pretty good he didn’t feel he’d be able to pull it off in this state. He then got a better idea—or rather, half of him did. “E. Gadd!” he shouted.

_Who is being this E. Gadd?_ Fawful asked, sounding genuinely curious.

_A scientist and inventor,_ Luigi responded. _You’ll love him, I can guarantee it. Er, maybe._

“We’d better get going,” he said to himself. He looked up at the hill they had rolled down when they were still separate people. “There is being a fork off that path that has direction to Evershade Forest. That’s where he had his last stable laboratory.” He dusted off his cape and overalls and climbed back up the hill to make his trek to E. Gadd’s lab.

The package of chicken remained behind and would likely feed several grateful wild animals.


	2. Through the Evershade Forest

He had been walking for some time as the sun set further. He was cold, tired, hungry, and really annoyed at the screeching voice in his head that wouldn’t stop complaining about his cold, tired, and hungry state. Either way, it was pretty clear that he wouldn’t reach even the edge of the Evershade Forest before the beginnings of true nightfall, and even though part of him practically knew that forest like the back of his hand by now, travelling through it was nerve-wracking enough at midday, especially for the part of him who had never even heard of the place until now.

_Do you have absolute confidence we are on the path that is correct?_

He let out an audible groan in response to the repeated thought. _For the tenth time, YES. Now PLEASE stop nagging long enough for us to get there._

As the sun had reached that point on the horizon where you can only see a small sliver of its light, he came across a familiar weathered sign. Well, partly familiar. It pointed in the direction they were headed and read “ _Evershade Forest – Five Yards_ ”. The sight ahead confirmed what the sign and partial memory told him; the trees began to seem more untamed and clustered together along the path. “Bingo,” he said aloud to himself. He glanced around as he approached the increasingly dense clusters of trees. Keeping his gaze near the bases of the tree trunks, he eventually found what he was looking for—what Luigi remembered he had left there.

It was, or at least seemed to be, a rather nondescript rock that wouldn’t look too out of place if you didn’t get too close to examine it, or notice the green “L” painted onto the side. He knelt down and lifted the decorative plastic “rock”, one of those things you get to hide a lawn installment so that your yard looks more “natural”. Underneath the false plastic shell was a small lockbox, the combination lock on which he undid rather quickly. He opened the box and removed a normal-looking flashlight. He shook it slightly, trying to check if it was still active, then turned it on and let its friendly bright beam illuminate the forest before him. “Good to see you still have working, old friend,” he said warmly. The comforting light now in his grasp, he took a deep breath, then stepped into the boundaries of the forest.

The feelings he was getting upon starting the trek through Evershade was, like the entire situation, very odd. It was a strange mix of nostalgia, dread, and heavily denied terror.

_Scared, Fawful?_ Luigi asked, partly teasing and partly an attempt to be comforting if the answer was in fact yes.

_You are wishing so, aren’t you, fink-rat?!_ Fawful retorted. _I have chortles at this forest of stupidness! It is you who is being the scared one!_

He rolled his eyes. The Fawful part of his mind was partly correct; the Luigi part was scared. He had been scared every time he had to trek through Evershade at night, though he wasn’t used to making the path _to_ E. Gadd’s lab this late, usually only _from_. However, that was only because he knew exactly what lurked within the woods. Fawful had never been into these woods. He had no clue. And, unfortunately for both of them, he had a twisted imagination and was thinking up all kinds of potential threats, both plausible and implausible, as well as bits of memories cropped up from Luigi and twisted in strange manners.

“H-have the stopping!” he shouted aloud, putting his free hand to his face in an attempt to drive the imagined horrors from his shared mind. He sighed. “This is crazy, w-we need to have calm.”

_What is being your idea of brightness?_ Fawful spat at Luigi.

_Er...maybe sing a happy song?_ Luigi suggested. _Music usually does wonders to change any sort of mood._

A familiar laugh rang through his shared mind. _That is being smart,_ Fawful said coyly, almost tauntingly. _I have knowledge of one that is perfect!_

He began to whistle an up-beat, jovial tune, one that was reminiscent of the opening to a film featuring an eccentric chocolate maker. Both halves of the shared mind were relatively calmed down by the happy melody...that is, until he began to sing the lyrics.

“ _Who can make your soul diiiiiiee?  
With a passing glaaaaance?  
Leave a bunch of notes around and make you poop your pants  
The Slenderman, the Slenderman-man!_”

_WH-WHAT THE HECK KIND OF LYRICS ARE THAT?!_ Luigi screamed in their mind. _That’s just creepy! It’s not helping!_

_You had suggesting of music to stave off the scaries, right?_ Fawful laughed. _So I am singing about a thing of scariness that is fake in entirety! It is being a pure fabrication of the interwebs, honest!_

_Doesn’t change the fact that it DOESN’T LIGHTEN THE MOOD._

He sighed and rolled his eyes, having been defeated by Luigi’s apparent finality of the statement. So he decided to try again, with a song that would have no association with any spooky beings from the imagination of either Luigi, Fawful, or some guy on the internet with too much time on his hands. “ _Ground control to Fox McCloud—_ ”

_Oh god, please, no, stop, seriously, no David Bowie, nope nope nope._

He stopped, puzzled. _Oh, what is being the problem of yours NOW?_ Fawful groaned.

_In all fairness, it would take too long to explain in enough detail for you to understand,_ Luigi replied. _All you need to know is I get this sick feeling from anything related David Bowie ever since...yeah._

_But it is not being David Bow—_ Fawful stopped himself. _Oh right. Parody. Enough fairness._

He continued through the Evershade Forest, having finally reached a compromise of mind-easing music in a simple whistling tune, a tune that was familiar to part of him and was thankfully enough to soothe the other part. The shadows of the trees in the flashlight’s bright beams still seemed to morph into imagined threats, but the whistling kept them at bay.

He heard a sound. The friendly-sounding bark of a dog recognizing someone it loved or would possibly love, though something about it sounded...off. It set him on-edge. He quickened his pace, still whistling, yet becoming increasingly nervous. He heard the bark again, sounding closer this time. It drove him crazy not knowing what was making the sound, so against his better judgement, he turned to face the source.

Sitting politely right behind him was a little white dog wearing a bright red collar. Or, at least, it looked like a dog. It was definitely not a normal dog; for one thing, its fur glowed eerily and it was somewhat translucent. It let out another friendly little bark, its bark echoing unnaturally for the environment they were standing in. Part of him knew exactly what this dog was, and was relieved to see it was this and not something worse. He remembered the little ghost dog, a friend Luigi had encountered during the Dark Moon incident. Even with all the forests’ ghosts having gone berserk due to the Dark Moon having been shattered, this dog only wanted to play and generally be a harmless scamp. He remembered that when all was said and done, Luigi had taken the little guy in as a pet for a while, at least until his shenanigans had gotten a bit too much for him and Mario to handle and he had to be sent to live with E. Gadd instead. Luigi had wanted to name him “Spooky”, but had remembered the ghost dog from the mansion he had “won” years prior had been named that, so to differentiate and to poke fun at a mildly funny meme, he had instead began calling the ghost dog “Spoopy”.

He knew that Spoopy was a friendly spirit and only wanted to greet a person that at least partially looked and smelled like the friend he had known. But for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to approach his canine companion. In fact, he felt himself start to back away. “S-Sp-Spoopy...?” he managed to eke out, his voice shaking in a manner that made no sense and yet made ALL the sense. Recognizing his name, Spoopy barked again, wagging his ethereal tail in delight.

That’s when he realized what was going on. The taunting voice of Fawful that had been a constant presence in their shared mind had gone quiet. No, not entirely quiet...there had been a non-melodic humming sound that had been ringing through their shared mind ever since he had first seen Spoopy. It wasn’t humming. It was an extended whimper of dread and distress and fear.

_If you’re scared of ghosts, it’s all right,_ Luigi tried to reassure the whining Bean. _Spoopy’s harmless, and only annoying if you’ve got something important that he thinks is a toy._

_G-ghosts, hah! Ghosts are being s-stupid and fake!_ Fawful’s voice didn’t have quite the same note of narcissistic confidence that Luigi had come to expect. It had a thin layer of false bravado, but it was clear that he was terrified of...something.

_Well, if ghosts are so stupid and fake, why don’t you tell him?_ Luigi asked.

_N-no!_ Fawful’s voice practically echoed in their skull. _It will have fury and then the biting and other badness!_

_No, he’ll just get sad and maybe cry—_ It then clicked for the Luigi part of the mind. _Oh, I get it now! You’re scared of DOGS! Oh, that’s just sad, that is just so sad._

There was no response from Fawful’s part of the mind. Only a forced physical response. He turned and ran, screaming in terror, the flashlight’s beam erratically dancing through the tall trees. Spoopy, predictably for a dog of any state of living, gave chase with glee, likely believing this to be an elaborate game instead of someone experiencing genuine fear. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, the friendly barking sounds following him being twisted in his mind as hungry snarls.

_What are you doing, you goof?_ Luigi asked in disbelief. _If you really wanted to get away from Spoopy, you should’ve thrown a stick or something. Little guy loves fetch...er, technically more like “keep-away”..._

_WHY DID YOU NOT HAVE TELLING ME BEFORE?!_ Fawful shrieked.

_I didn’t have time before you decided to book it!_

He didn’t look back, continuing to run in a manner not dissimilar to a blue-quilled hedgehog. As he ran deeper into the forest, he began to see bright spots in the distance. He wasn’t sure if they were a real occurrence or just another product of his fear until he drew closer and could see a building lit up from within. Part of him was unsure of the circumstances, but at the same time he knew exactly where he was headed, and it had been the place he had been looking for the whole time.

As he approached the lab, he could hear Spoopy still close behind him. He ran to the door and tried to open, but it was locked. In his panic, he banged frantically on the door. “P-professor!” he shouted. “Please, have opening the door! I-it’s Luigi! A-and someone else! Hurry, please open up—!”

Shuffling could be heard coming from within the lab. Footsteps approached the door, accompanied by the voice of an old man. “Hold on, hold on, feller, I’m comin’,” the voice murmured, a hint of sleep in its tone. The sound of locks being undone could be heard. “Geez, what’s got you out here so late, and why d’you sound like somethin’s crawled up your butt—” As the door opened, he fell into the lab from having leaned against it, nearly knocking the short-statured scientist down with him. “Good lord, what’s all this ruckus?” Professor E. Gadd asked, clearly confused. “Who are you? Where’s Luigi?”

“Professor, I know this has seeming of craziness,” he said breathlessly. “I _am_ Luigi, and I am also being...” He had no idea whether or not it was a good idea to tell him about Fawful, so he decided to ease him in a little bit. “...someone else. It is a story of much length.”

“Luigi and someone else, huh?” E. Gadd seemed intrigued. This was why they had come to him; E. Gadd would be the most likely to believe something strange like two people suddenly becoming one individual. “Would I happen to know who this someone else is?”

“Er...ever have hearing of someone named ‘Fawful’?”

E. Gadd thought for a bit. “I’ve heard the name before, but I can’t say that I can really put a face or actions to it,” he admitted. “So, Luigi...er, and Fawful too, I guess...hang on, d’you mind if I just mush your names together while you’re together like this? Like something like ‘Fawigi’, is that okay?”

The newly-dubbed “Fawigi” nodded. “That is being fine,” he said.

“All right.” E. Gadd smiled warmly. “So, Fawigi, I take it you came here ‘cuz you thought I could help the two of you get back to normal?’

“Yes!” Fawigi exclaimed. “So can you?”

“Hmm, I dunno,” E. Gadd admitted. “Never heard of this sort of fusing thing happening with corporeal entities before. ...Uh, this Fawful person is corporeal, right?”

“Last time we had checking,” Fawigi said. Truth be told, neither Fawful or Luigi were entirely sure that Fawful was entirely corporeal anymore after the whole “absorbing the energy of the Dark Star then turning into a bug thing and exploding inside Bowser’s stomach” incident.

“Reeeaaal interesting,” E. Gadd murmured. He looked Fawigi over, taking in all the different ways that the features of Luigi had apparently been changed by Fawful’s presence. “Well, if you want, you’re welcome to stay here until we can get somethin’ figured out, all right?”

“That is being a good idea,” Fawigi said. “I don’t think Mario’d be too keen on...well...” He motioned around himself. “This. Because reasons.”

“Don’t worry, feller, I understand,” E. Gadd said. He put a reassuring hand on Fawigi’s shoulder. “We’ll get this sorted out, or at least we’ll give it a dang good try.”

It was then that something slipped through the now-closed door. The friendly bark of Spoopy caused Fawigi to jump. “You had letting it in!” he squealed.

“Wait, what’s wrong now?” E. Gadd asked with concern. “Ol’ Spoopy been a bad dog or somethin’?”

“Fawful’s scared of dogs,” Fawigi chuckled. Then he swiftly added, “And he is having reasons of complete legitimacy for such!”

“Well, then, Spoopy really _has_ been a bad dog,” E. Gadd said with a light, yet sympathetic, laugh. He turned to Spoopy and scratched where his ears would be if he were a live dog. “You’re gonna have to give our pal a bit of room for a while, okay? He’s not just Luigi right now, you got it?” Spoopy gave a small bark of acknowledgement, then waddled over to the corner of the room and sat down. “Well, you should get some rest, feller,” E. Gadd said. “It’s late, and I figure you’d need it after what you’ve been through.”

“Good idea,” Fawigi said. Sleep sounded wonderful at the moment, and that was one of the few things his two conflicting psyches could currently agree on. E. Gadd cleared some stuff off the old couch in his front room and dragged out a blanket he kept for those times when Luigi would occasionally spend the night. Fawigi curled up on the couch and with surprising swiftness fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (original post date August 21, 2015)


	3. Shared Mindscape

Darkness filled the expanse that Luigi had found himself in. Slowly, the darkness became lit up with dozens of green stars, one by one. Along with the stars, another green object lit up at Luigi’s waist; it was long and thin, like some sort of lifeline or tether, and wrapped around his body in a hovering ring that did not make contact with his body whatsoever. He tried to touch it, but his fingers went right through it. For no reason other than it was the only thing he could see that was even remotely interactive, he decided to follow where the end of the line led to. As he walked, the line itself seemed to become shorter rather than bunching up behind him, as if his end of the line were being generated just by his presence alone.

He soon came upon a strange irregularity in the line. It was a large, nasty-looking tangle, the kind of tangles that give seamstresses nightmares, and it floated in midair at about eye level. Curiously, he reached out a hand to touch the tangle in the line. He ended up receiving a nasty shock, letting out a yelp and grabbing at his stinging hand.

“That isn’t being an idea of smartness,” a familiar voice said. Luigi looked around for the source of the voice, but saw no one. It was then that he realized that the line continued beyond the tangled part, and it went upward instead of back down to the ground. He looked up and saw Fawful sitting seemingly in midair, upside-down and facing away from him. Fawful stood up and turned to face his mental companion. “Fink-rat,” he snarled.

“Menace,” Luigi retorted, though not in the same sort of nasty manner with which Fawful had spat the familiar insult. “What’s with the sudden return to hostility? I thought we’d come to some sort of truce while we were stuck together.”

“A truce is not changing the facts that are real,” Fawful said. “The fact being that I _do not like you._ ”

“W-well, I don’t like you all that much either,” Luigi said, “but at least I’m not going to try and make this situation any worse by needlessly antagonizing you.” He held out his hand to shake. “C’mon, now. Let’s at least _try_ to be nice to each other while we’re stuck like this.”

Fawful glanced at the plumber’s outstretched hand, then reluctantly grabbed it with his own. “Enough fairness,” he said. “I have supposing expending the fury I have will not be getting us back to normalcy with more speed than having niceness.”

Luigi noticed that Fawful seemed slightly disgusted at the thought at being “nice” to him. Perhaps it was just a villain thing, having an aversion to cooperation with heroes even when necessary? It was certainly the case during the time Bowser had teamed up with them, at least the time that Bowser was aware of the team-up the whole time. To be fair, it was also that way when Bowser found out Mario and Luigi had been helping him get his castle back and defeat Fawful during the whole Dark Star fiasco. Even with those thoughts on his mind, Luigi thought it best not to bring it up. He decided to try and start a conversation in a different manner. “So...why are you on the ceiling?” Great work, Weege. Way to go.

Fawful merely shrugged. “Like a sandwich of wieners with Twinkies for the bread, the scape of the mind has much strangeness,” he said. “Of coursing, from the perspective that is mine, the one standing on the ceiling is you.”

“Uh-huh,” Luigi said. He decided not to ask about the strange sandwich Fawful had mentioned, though the obscure ingredients struck him as vaguely familiar.

Fawful glanced down—or rather, up from his perspective—at the ceiling...floor...whatever plane of existence Luigi was standing on. “Have waiting for seconds,” he said. He lifted one foot off of his plane, then carefully stood tip-toe on the other. He then jumped, and as it looked like he was going to gravitate back toward his plane, he then slowly fell down to Luigi’s, as if he were drifting downward through water. Fawful looked around, then looked up at Luigi and smiled his typical, creepy grin. “Ta-daa!” he exclaimed, like some sort of demented child. “Shifting of perspective! I am thinking we can both have controlling to this place.”

“That would make sense,” Luigi said. He wasn’t sure if it was merely spending time around Fawful or the fact that they were mentally connected, but he was beginning to find it easier to understand his strange manner of syntax. “I mean, it _is_ our thoughts that make up this place, right?” He clasped his hands together, then opened them, revealing a handful of dirt that had not been there previously. His eyes widened in pleasant surprise, even though it was he who had willed the stuff into existence...or, at least, into thought. A green stem grew from the handful of soil, leaves sprouting from the sides, eventually growing into a full-bloomed Fire Flower. “Wow, looks like you were right!” he said with a light chuckle.

“You are being easily impressed like a child who is sheltered,” Fawful said. His smile faltered for reasons unknown. He turned away from Luigi and walked away. “I...had the hoping that I could have time of alone in my dreams at least...” he murmured to himself as he left. “...I am guessing now that that is a dream for pipes...”

“Wait, where are you going?” Luigi asked. The tone of Fawful’s voice didn’t have that typical confident, narcissistic quality he had gotten used to, and none of the fear that it had taken on when they had been “attacked” by Spoopy. There was a noticeable amount of...melancholy to it. “What’s wrong?” he called out to Fawful. He followed the Bean boy, keeping a careful hold on his hand-grown flower.

Fawful glanced back at Luigi and quickened his pace. “Do not be following me!” Fawful shouted back. His brisk jog soon became a run.

“Hold on, I’m just concerned!” Luigi said. “Wait up!” He also began to run, dropping the flower onto the ground. Where the flower fell, it instantly took root and a patch of grass grew up around it, sprouting more flowers of its same kind. Luigi paid it no mind, chasing after the obviously distressed Fawful, more of concern than anything. The tangled knot of the line vaguely connecting the two of them kept its position directly between the two of them.

It was then that Fawful turned around. “I say to you **_LEAVE ME ALONE!_** ” His voice was much louder than he could naturally make it, and there was an echo that made it sound as though five Fawfuls were shouting instead of just the one. The energy of Fawful’s outburst rippled through the line between them until it reached Luigi’s end. The rings surrounding him instantly solidified and constricted, pinning his arms to his sides, but he felt the pain from the electricity shooting through it first. “Fawful is having secrets!” the Bean shouted. “So many secrets that are giving me comfort in the nights when I am lonely, secrets that are not meant for the eyes and ears of a fink-rat such as you!”

“I-I’m sor-sorry!” Luigi choked out through the painful jolts coursing through the mental projection of his body. “I did...I didn’t...know!”

“Of course you didn’t!” Fawful cried. “That is being the very _nature_ of secrets!”

The line constricted around Luigi loosened and the jolting energy subsided, but he still shook from the remnants of sparks running through him. “Okay, o-okay...I get it...” he panted, rubbing his now free arms to try and alleviate the pain. “I get that you need time alone. I’ll...I’ll stay here and you can go be alone for as long as you need.”

Fawful glared at him through those swirled nearly-opaque lenses of his, seeming unsure. “You are giving up with such ease?” he asked, suspicious. “I had thinking fink-rats were possessing all the persistence.”

“Yeah, I can be persistent,” Luigi said. “But I can also recognize when a sad kid needs some time to himself.” He sighed. “We all have secrets, after all. Even I have memories I’d rather you not see.”

“You have understanding...” Fawful murmured. He turned and began to walk away again, but not before looking back and grinning at Luigi. The smile he displayed now seemed to be a bit warmer than normal. “Thanking to you, green mustache.”

“Uh, about that,” Luigi said, “it’s ‘Luigi’.”

“...Thanking to you, Luigi.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (original post date August 28, 2015)


	4. Waking and Memories

Fawigi opened his eyes, staring at the dull ceiling of E. Gadd’s lab. He made his way to the bathroom that he half-remembered the path to and looked in the mirror. Much to his annoyance, the problem hadn’t magically fixed itself overnight and he was still a two-in-one deal. He sighed. “And here I had the hoping that this whole thing had been some kind of fever dream,” he murmured. Fawigi noticed that his vision, while somewhat blurry, was considerably better than that part of him was used to and what the other part expected. That probably explained why his glasses were no longer nearly opaque due to the thickness.

_You’re welcome for fixing your terrible eyes,_ Luigi teased.

Fawigi rolled his eyes and chuckled lightly. He then glared at the well-kept mustache he bore with minor disgust. _I have hatred for this lip caterpillar,_ Fawful said with a groan. _Can I be getting rid of it?_

_DON’T. YOU. EFFING. DARE._

Fawigi shook his head, trying to clear his head of the internal argument before it actually started. He decided to leave the subject of the mustache alone for now. He went back to the area he had been sleeping and put on his glasses, and was about to put on his hat as well until he noticed the sleeping E. Gadd a short distance away. Silly Gadd, he had a perfectly functional bedroom with a decent bed and instead chose to sleep on a cot in his main research room. That’s when he got an idea, though whether or not it came from Luigi or Fawful he couldn’t be sure, and frankly it wouldn’t be out of place for either of them. Luigi _did_ have this odd tradition that he would enact during the morning any time he would stay over at Gadd’s lab. He searched the pockets of his merged outfit and sure enough, Luigi’s music player was still there, along with the ear buds. A wide grin began to spread on his face, and he would’ve let out a laugh as well if the thing he was planning depended on Gadd remaining asleep for as long as it took for the plan to come to fruition.

Carefully, Fawigi wedged the earbuds into E. Gadd’s ears. Pleasantly surprised that he hadn’t already woken up from the fact that a hand was practically dancing across his face, and yet simultaneously not surprised in the slightest, Fawigi turned the music player on and scrolled through the selection until he found an old favorite just for this sort of occasion. Suppressing another laugh, he pressed “play” and watched the chaos begin. It was a testament to just how high-quality the earbuds were that the wake-up call could be heard in the rest of the room.

“ _TIIIIIIIIME TO GET UP, IT'S TIME TO GET OUT OF BEEHHHH-EH-EH-EH-EH-EHHHH—_ ”

The rest of the song, which was really just the word “bed” extended for an obnoxiously long time, was drowned out by the panicked Gadd’s shouting and Fawigi’s strange mix of good-natured and manic laughter. “Waking, waking, eggs and baking!” Fawigi said through pauses in his laughter as Gadd ripped the earbuds from his ears.

“Great gallopin’ Goombas, boy!” E. Gadd half-shouted, presumably trying to hear himself over a ringing that likely started in his ears from the sudden burst of loud music. “Was that really necessary?!”

“We had thinking it was,” Fawigi giggled.

E. Gadd groaned, rubbing his temples. “To be fair, I should’ve expected it by this point,” he said. “There was just no reason for it to be that _loud_.” He put on his glasses, stood up, and pulled his labcoat on over his pajamas. Fawigi said nothing further, instead letting the denizens of his shared mind discuss the incident between themselves.

_I...think you took it a bit too far,_ Luigi said nervously.

_What are you meaning?_ Fawful asked, genuinely confused. _The idea was yours, right? You have doing this every morning you are staying here, yes?_

_Yeah, but never to the point of giving him tinnitus!_ Luigi retorted. _It’s more like a gentle serenade to invoke mild annoyance. The way you were going, it’d burst his already age-riddled eardrums._

_...Oopsing._

_Yeah. “Oopsing.” And after he offered to help us get separate again and everything. Shame on you, you ridiculous bean._

\-----

“All right, now that I’ve got my hearing back, let’s go about tryin’ to get you two back to being, well, two,” E. Gadd said. He had set up several odd-looking machines, presumably to monitor brain waves from how Gadd had described them, around a chair where Fawigi sat. Fawigi watched in confusion as the professor switched on one of the machines and let out a jovial laugh. “I’m excited to finally be able to test this stuff out!” he exclaimed. “I built these to try and detect acts of ghostly possession, but I bet they’ll work just fine for our purposes if my research and blueprints turned out correct.”

“Wait, wait, have the waiting,” Fawigi said, a twinge of nervousness in his voice. “Are you saying I am a pig of guinea for your new inventions or something? I thought I told you no ‘guinea-pigging’ me after that one time!” He made a weird face after saying this. “...He had the testing on you of machines of strangeness before?” he asked himself.

“This isn’t an attempt at some new dandelion jelly recipe or strange coffee blend,” Gadd chuckled. “I meant this is the first time I’ve tested this on someone other than myself. You have nothin’ to worry about, feller.” He paused. “Maybe. You do have a much younger brain than mine so there may be some major differences, but I’m pretty sure that’ll make your results come out better due to your youth. Er, at least I think you do. How old is Fawful, anyway?”

“That’s actually a good question,” Fawigi murmured. He thought for a bit. “Last time I had checking, I had the age of...16? 17? But I am not being sure as to the number of years I had absence...”

“Years of ‘absence’, huh?” Gadd asked, watching the monitor on the machine recording Fawigi’s brainwaves. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

Fawigi froze. “I...am not being sure you would want to have assistance of Fawful if the question you are asking had answering.”

Gadd laughed. “Oh, come on, you don’t have to be so cagey, youngster.” He lightly nudged Fawigi’s arm. “I’m not one to judge anyone’s past. I gave one of my old inventions to Bowser’s kid, for Pete’s sake, and the little scamp used it to frame ol’ Mario. Did I track him down and take it back from him? Heck no!”

Fawigi nodded. Part of him remembered being told about the Delfino Island incident, and both parts of him found it really weird that anyone would believe Mario could do anything that the public would believe to be wrong. “Do you have knowledge of the Dark Star?” Fawigi asked.

Gadd’s expression darkened. “I’ve heard of it,” he said nervously. “You got wrapped up in shenanigans with that thing somehow?”

“You could have saying of that...” Fawigi said. “Shortness to story of length, Fawful had exploding inside of the Bowser that I hate.” He shook his head. “And it was really weird and gross and there were weird dark blobs everywhere...”

“Hold that thought!” Gadd suddenly exclaimed. He pointed at the monitor. “There was a clear change of brainwave activity patterns just now! Is Luigi at the forefront right now?”

“I think so?” Fawigi shrugged. “Less than 24 hours and I can’t even tell anymore who is having the talking or who’s in control or if it’s both at once.”

“Uh huh, uh huh,” Gadd said absent-mindedly, not taking his eyes off the monitor and the flip-flopping brainwave patterns it was displaying.

“Do you even have the listening to this mess spewing from my mouth?” Fawigi asked, raising an eyebrow. “I have confusion just listening to myself at this point.”

“Oh, sorry,” Gadd said. “I just got caught up in watching this exchange. It’s fascinating. Never seen anything like this, well, not outside of the Boolossus phenomenon. ...Wait, no, this isn’t like Boolossus either, because it’s two living people forcibly sharing a body...”

“I have knowing of forced sharing of bodies before!” Fawigi said excitedly. He then thought harder about what he had just said. “...Never of minding, that did not have involving me directly. Also that is being between a stupid king of Koopas and a person who had...prior...death...” There was an odd halting in his voice now, and he felt his eyes start to water. “...You really do miss her, don’t you?” he asked himself softly. Without warning, he began to openly sob.

“Ah no, Fawigi, I’m sorry!” Gadd said. He stepped away from the machine and made to try and comfort the crying mess before him. “I didn’t mean to dig up anything unpleasant for either half of ya. We can stop if you want.”

“I...I just...I never had letting...myself...to...be grieving proper...” Fawigi said through sobs. “Poor kid’s...gone through so much...had wanting...to give her...pride for Fawful...”

“There, there, kiddo,” Gadd said, patting Fawigi’s shoulder in reassurance. “It’ll be okay. You’ll get through this.”

“Are you even knowing why I have the sads?” Fawigi asked.

“I can make an educated guess, at the very least,” Gadd replied. “You—or Fawful at least—lost someone close, someone who I can assume was a mother figure or a woman that was otherwise a strong influence in your early life. Am I right?”

Fawigi nodded, wiping the tears from his eyes. “I had trying to block the memories of her to be focusing on my goals that were great,” he said. “Just a little kingdom conquering, nothing that was for too much asking.”

Gadd raised an eyebrow at that last statement, but he decided to keep his judgements to himself. “Blocking memories isn’t a good way to heal at all,” he said simply. “Anyway, I think we should stop working on the problem at the moment. You look like you need some time to yourself.”

Fawigi rolled his eyes. “I think time to one’s self is being of impossibility in the state we’re in,” he chuckled darkly.

“Well, at least I’m not gonna bother you until you feel up to puttin’ up with me again,” the professor said with a smile. “Take as much time as you need. The brainwave data was pretty telling, anyway, if I can just figure out how to isolate the differing signals...” He wandered into the next room, mumbling to himself of possible solutions.

\-----

With the professor gone and the mental exhaustion of two brains working with the energy of one taking its toll, Fawigi let himself drift into a quick nap. In their mindscape, Luigi noticed that amongst the green stars that littered the expanse there also appeared to be screens floating in midair. He looked closely at one and saw himself and a red cherry-shaped Bob-omb walking through the streets of a run-down town. The version of him in the screen soon came across his brother Mario, who himself was accompanied by a Koopa wearing a light blue hoodie. “This is a memory, isn’t it?” he asked himself.

“You just had the figuring of that?” Fawful’s voice asked tauntingly from the distance.

“WELL, EXCUSE ME,” Luigi half-shouted, not giving a thought that maybe their “distance” didn’t really play a part into their ability to hear each other. “WE CAN’T ALL BE ON THE UP-AND-UP AS QUICK AS YOU.”

“That is being correct, your mind does not have the quickness like that which is mine.”

Luigi groaned. He _had_ had some feelings of sympathy towards the bean about the whole Cackletta thing, but that kinda kicked it all out of him. He looked around and saw more screens floating nearby. Most of them contained scenes that he recognized, either from the adventures he had gone on with his brother or random moments from their downtime. Occasionally he caught a glimpse of something he didn’t recognize in the slightest, which he guessed had to be one of Fawful’s memories.

“Where are you, anyway?” Luigi asked. There was no response. Perhaps Fawful just didn’t want to talk at this time, and considering what happened earlier Luigi didn’t really blame him. And like he had said the previous night, Fawful did have secrets that Luigi wasn’t privy to, just like he had some memories that he would rather keep private even with a shared mind space.

Suddenly a towering figure appeared before him, laughing maniacally. Luigi fell back in shock with a frightened yelp. After getting over the initial jumpscare, he realized he was looking at a replica of Cackletta. He could see through the Cackletta replica somewhat, and he noticed that Fawful had been sitting behind her, though he had jumped up upon hearing Luigi’s surprised yelp. “Awww, what is being the matter?” Fawful taunted. “Do you have fright at the face of my former mistress?”

“No, I’m not scared of her,” Luigi said. “I just didn’t expect _anything_ to just jump out at me. It could’ve been something as silly as a...giant...banana with butterfly wings...that sparkled or something, I’unno. Just the fact that something jumped out at me startled me.”

“You have jumpiness that is unnecessary,” Fawful said with a laugh.

“Yeah, that’s true.” Luigi examined the mental replica of the Beanish witch. “I think you made her a bit too tall, though.”

“Do you intend to be pulling my leg?” Fawful asked, a bit miffed. “I have memories of perfection of Cackletta!”

“Hey, I’m not questioning your memories of her, you obviously have a lot more to draw from than I do,” Luigi said. “I’m just saying I think you grew a bit and it skewed your perspective.”

Fawful looked at Luigi, then looked at his Cackletta replica, then back at Luigi. “You miiight have belief of correctness,” he admitted.

“So...why did you make a brain Cackletta, exactly?”

“Your friend of science had making of a good point,” Fawful said. “I am needing to finally get over the loss. I have remembering of times with Cackletta that were good. Times that were bad, too, but mostly times that were good.” He turned away from Luigi. “Not like you would have knowing what it is like...”

“You think I wouldn’t know what it’s like to...what?” Luigi asked. “What it’s like to lose someone? I know what it’s like to lose someone, honest. My brother and I lost someone pretty close to us a little over a month ago.”

Fawful scoffed. “Let me have guessing, it was a grandparent of oldness who had knowledge their time was coming and had all the time to be settling things proper?”

“No,” Luigi said with a sad sigh. “He was a close friend, taken without warning. It hit us pretty hard. Not just us, but a lot of others around the world as well. I heard the day he passed, an entire city of squid people took to spraying graffiti in his honor.” A tear streamed down his face, yet he managed a smile. “He’s in a better place now, though. Makin’ games for the angels, I bet.”

Fawful looked down at his feet, for once at a loss for words. He sighed, then held out his arms. “This will probably have all the awkwardness, but I am not caring.”

“Wait, what?” Luigi asked. He then felt a soft force hit him in the midsection as Fawful gave him an unexpected hug. “Oh...kay...that’s not something I ever thought someone like you would do, but okay.” He patted Fawful’s head and reciprocated the hug.

“Er...when we have separation...” Fawful murmured, trailing off before he could think of the words.

“Don’t worry,” Luigi said with a light laugh. “I won’t tell anyone your brain hugged my brain.” He realized something about Fawful in that moment. The bean may talk a big game, but in the end he was just a kid who hadn’t been allowed to properly grow up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (original post date September 5, 2015)


	5. A Tangled Psychic Link

“You have a good nap there, feller?”

Fawigi groaned, rubbing his eyes and wiping something wet from his cheek. He grimaced upon feeling it. Had he actually cried in his sleep? Good lord, if that were the case, then that would be SO embarrassing. “Why does my face have wetness...?” he muttered to himself. He then turned his head to see the likely answer; Spoopy was sitting on backside of the couch he had been napping on, his pale tongue dripping in ectoplasmic saliva as he happily panted and wagged his ethereal tail. He let out a small, friendly bark, causing Fawigi to yelp.

“All right, Spoopy, go on, quit botherin’ the boy,” E. Gadd said, shooing Spoopy away. Spoopy obediently hopped off the couch and made his way right through the opposite wall. “Well then, Fawigi, I have some good news,” Gadd said with a laugh. “I managed to get a hold of someone who had experience with this sort of thing. Well, not specifically _this_ —” (he motioned toward Fawigi) “—but the idea of multiple entities sharing a form.”

“You did?” Fawigi asked, his interest understandably piqued. “Who is this person being?”

“Now hold yer horses, it’s gonna take her a while to arrive,” Gadd said. “She’s coming all the way from Forever Forest, and that’s a long ways off from here.”

Fawigi nodded. Maybe this person, whoever she was, could be the solution to their problem. Waiting, however, would prove to be difficult, and after about half an hour he was starting to get antsy. He then realized that he hadn’t eaten anything since the previous day at best, and in who-knows-how-long at worst. “Are you having any food?” Fawigi asked Gadd.

“Yeah, I bet there’s something in the kitchen somewhere,” Gadd said, looking over a stack of papers that presumably held a variety of research notes, either related or unrelated to each other or the current situation.

“You bet, huh?” Fawigi repeated. He decided not to question any further and instead made his way into the kitchen. The place looked rarely used, the table and countertop cluttered with more research and odd half-finished gadgets, the fridge filled with more (thankfully labeled) samples of various substances than actual food. Thankfully the freezer did not tell the same story as the fridge, but the edible items within would take way too long to thaw out for Fawigi’s liking.

_Typical,_ Luigi groaned. _He always does this, gets soooo caught up in whatever project he’s gotten himself into that he forgets some of the basic requirements for living. Sometimes I think the only time he actually eats anything decent is when another living being is here with him._

Fawigi glared at the contents of the fridge and freezer, then pulled out a little bit of every edible thing he could find. By some miracle, there was even a carton of eggs that were still well within their expiration date. He went through the cabinets and found a few packets of ramen. He could work with this.

\-----

A little less than ten minutes later, as E. Gadd continued to go over the notes he was re-examining, he heard the hard clunk of a bowl being sat down on the table beside him. He turned and saw a steaming bowl of ramen, with bits of meat and egg mixed in. He looked up at Fawigi, who had a bowl of his own and was shoveling its contents into his mouth. He smiled, then took his own bowl and began to eat as well.

As they were enjoying their meal, they were soon interrupted by a knock on the door. “Well, seems she got here sooner than I expected,” E. Gadd said, putting down his spoon and making his way to the door.

“Awashkwih,” Fawigi said sarcastically through a mouthful of ramen, then swallowed and repeated in a slightly altered way, “That was having quickness.”

E. Gadd opened the door, though it was unnecessary aside from being an act of courtesy as his guest could’ve easily passed through it if it were closed. In floated an elegant-looking female Boo, her form glowing a pale green rather than the typical white that most Boos bore, two red bows adorning the sides of her head. She did not allow her tongue to hang from her mouth like other Boos, instead her mouth taking the form of a small grin. “I’m surprised you of all people would seek out the assistance of one of the Boos,” she said in a bit of a cocky manner. “Considering the trouble you’ve given us and all.”

“This has nothing to do with ghost research, Lady Bow, I assure you,” Gadd said with a light chuckle. “Besides, I know you’re a notable figure in aiding one of the Mario Bros. before, maybe you can help the other one.”

“Very well,” Bow said. “So what’s so wrong with him that you need help from a Boo?”

“I...think you’ll need to see for yourself.”

Gadd brought Bow into the room where Fawigi was finishing his ramen. Fawigi looked up to see the Boo lady floating into the room behind Gadd and jumped in his seat from shock. “Y-you did not have saying she’d be a g-ghost!” he sputtered.

Bow stared at Fawigi with intrigue. “Well, this is...certainly interesting,” she said finally.

“So, Fawigi, I don’t know if you’ve met her before or not,” Gadd said. “This is—”

“Bow,” Fawigi said, the earlier nervousness in his voice now gone. “You helped Mario save Peach once, right?”

“That’s right,” Bow said. She smiled. “So what’s with you, then?”

“It’s a story of much length,” Fawigi sighed. “I am being Luigi and someone else in one body.”

“A merger, huh...” Bow floated closer to Fawigi and circled, examining nearly every inch of him. “Interesting. I didn’t know the living could pull something like this off outside of cartoons.”

“It’s not like we had the intending for this to happen,” Fawigi groaned. Even though it was only two people, he was already getting tired of them being more impressed than concerned. “Can you help get us back to having separation again?”

Bow looked into Fawigi’s eyes with an odd sort of intensity. “I can certainly try,” she said. “I can’t guarantee it’ll be pleasant for you, though. Are you okay with that?”

Fawigi nodded. Then, with only the briefest of warnings, Bow’s dead eyes lit up and she forced her non-corporeal form through his own.

\-----

Luigi and Fawful saw they had been forced back into the mindscape of their shared unconsciousness. “Is the mind of that ghost having craziness?!” Fawful shouted angrily. “Or is it being the mind of the scientist for letting her near us?!”

“C-calm down, Fawful!” Luigi said. “I’m sure she has a perfectly good reason for her actions!”

“Plumber’s got a point, kid,” a female voice said from the darkness. They both looked around for the source of the voice, and they soon found it. A young woman in a green dress stepped out of the darkness around them, red bows adorning her carefully styled pale hair. “Sorry about the suddenness of it all. It’s easier to get into someone’s mind when they don’t have enough time to properly react.”

“Bow?” Luigi asked. “Is that really you?”

“It’s what I see myself like if I were alive, yes,” she responded.

“What even did you have doing?” Fawful asked, still miffed.

“It’s only a temporary possession, don’t worry,” Bow chuckled. “I’m not going to do anything weird with your body, anyway. This is just something I know works when merged Boos get stuck together and can’t separate. Another Boo goes in and forced them apart from the innermost level. Maybe it’ll work with you two.”

“It’s worth a try,” Luigi said. He turned to Fawful. “What do you think?”

Fawful shrugged. “Ever of what,” he sighed.

Bow smirked. She looked over the glowing green line that connected the two of them, and the large tangled mass right in its center. “Never seen a psychic line this horribly entangled before,” she murmured. She raised an eyebrow, then took out a fan from her dress sleeve. “Doesn’t look like anything I can’t undo, though.” She gently tapped the tangled mass, then shoved her fan into it. A surge of energy arced out of the tangled mass, spreading out to Luigi, Fawful, and Bow. The energy surged through them, causing them all to scream in pain.

“P-please have the stopping!” Fawful shouted in between bouts of pain.

“C-can’t take anymore...!” Luigi sobbed.

“Th-this...this isn’t...normal...!” Bow shrieked. The tangled mass glowed brightly, illuminating the dark expanse with the intensity of a miniature sun.

\-----

Bow was shot out of Fawigi’s body with such force that she ricocheted off the walls before managing to stabilize herself in mid-air, her eyes spinning from the impacts. Both she and Fawigi were in considerable shock, and Gadd just stared at them in a mixture of confusion and concern. “What happened in there?” he asked them.

“Whatever’s got those two stuck together, it’s stubborn as hell,” Bow said shakily. “The usual methods aren’t going to work. I would normally suggest getting a few more Boos in there for the more stubborn cases, but we shouldn’t put them through any more of that, not for a good long while.”

“Pain...” Fawigi muttered, his eyes wide, hyperventilating and curled into a ball. “There was being...so much pain...”

“I’m sorry, Lui—er, Fawigi,” Bow said. “If I knew that would’ve happened I never would’ve...”

Fawigi said nothing. His eyes darted around, still in a state of shock. Gadd lightly patted Fawigi’s shoulder, and he winced from the touch. “So...what do we do now?” Gadd asked.

“I have no idea,” Bow said. “That was the most messed-up psychic link tangle I’d ever seen.”

“Psychic...link?” Normally Gadd’s mind would be reeling at the opportunity to learn more about the way Boos operated, but at the moment he was understandably more concerned about the nervous wreck curled in a ball on his couch.

“It’s what keeps merged beings from spontaneously splitting apart before they’re ready,” Bow explained. “Sometimes they get tangled and the individuals involved can’t split willingly, so someone else goes in to separate them by force. It’s usually not so dramatic when it happens.”

It took quite a while for Fawigi to calm down from the experience. By this time, Bow had left, and the sun outside had neared the horizon. He hadn’t even reacted when Spoopy came over to make sure he was okay, though the fact that the Polterpup hadn’t tried to lick him or jump in his lap this time probably had a hand in that. E. Gadd approached him, hesitant to disturb him in case he set him off again. “You okay, feller?” he asked softly.

“...I am thinking so,” Fawigi replied, unusually quiet in tone.

“Do you...need anything?”

“...Maybe something to drink.”

E. Gadd nodded and left the room. He soon returned with a glass of juice, along with a plate holding two pieces of toast and a jar of a thick yellow substance labeled “dandelion jelly”. “In case you get hungry,” Gadd said. “Don’t think it’d be a good idea for you to eat anything heavy in this state.”

“Thankings,” Fawigi said.

“No problem,” Gadd said warmly. “If there’s anything else, just let me know.”

Gadd once again left the room, closing the door quietly behind him. Fawigi gingerly sat up, drank some of the juice, then took a bite of toast. Out of curiosity, he opened the jar of dandelion jelly and spread a little bit on the toast, then took another bite. He made a strange face upon initially tasting it, but the grimace soon turned into a smile. He was feeling tired again. He assumed that it was because his body needed more sleep to run the processes of two brains, and he could see no reason to fight this new need.

\-----

Shattered glass. All around Luigi’s feet, he could see shattered glass littered across the mindscape. He heard Fawful laughing gleefully. Confused, he called out to his mental companion. “Uh, Fawful?” he asked, slightly nervous. “You all right?”

A red blur approached him with surprising speed, stopping just in front of him. It was Fawful, grinning ear to ear (or where his ears would be if they were external), seeming like he was only barely keeping himself from jumping up and down. “I am being more than okay!” Fawful exclaimed in delight. “I was not having any idea! Like apples and onions, we are being more alike than I had belief!” He laughed and spun around gleefully. “Why did you not have telling me before? Did you have a shame that was needless?”

Luigi raised an eyebrow, confused. “What...do you mean?” he asked. “What didn’t I tell you?”

“You...are not knowing?” Now it was Fawful’s turn to raise an eyebrow in confusion. Then he smiled and nodded with a small laugh. “I have understanding,” he said. “You have embarrassment about the events in those memories, like a soufflé of perfection that has taken a tumble straight to the floor. If people are hearing of the things you did, it would forever have shattering of the public face that is gracing the name Luigi.”

Luigi was starting to get nervous. “Th-the things I did? What are...what are you talking about?”

“The things, the things of amazement and impressiveness!” Fawful declared. “The machines you had building, the insults you had slinging! The hidden _villainy_ of Luigi! Or I should be saying, Mr. L!”

_Mr. L..._ That name pierced through Luigi’s very soul like a knife through warm butter. It was completely foreign, yet intensely familiar, and not in a good way. “I...I...don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, shaking his head fervently.

“L...Luigi?” Fawful asked, concerned with Luigi’s sudden change in demeanor. “Are you having okayness?”

Luigi didn’t respond, he just kept shaking his head. As if to taunt him, flashes of green static began to appear around him. Distorted voices played in the expanse with odd pitch-shifts and skipping like old, warped records. He heard his own voice shouting with a sort of malice that he never used with anyone. “No...no, no, no, no, no...this isn’t real...this can’t be...I never...”

“Maybe...I should have leaving...” Fawful murmured, his voice a bit shaky.

The flashing green static soon became visions of memories. In these memories was a man that bore a striking resemblance to Luigi, but was dressed in dark clothing, with a green bandanna around his neck and a black mask around his eyes. Some of the memories featured this man engaged in combat with Mario, Princess Peach, and Bowser, while others had him hanging around a motley crew of suspicious figures. Several had him butting heads with one of these unknown individuals, a man dressed in a violet and yellow jester’s outfit whose face was obscured by a two-tone comedy mask. This jester featured in memories that showed Luigi as his normal self, but a large plant-like object had sprouted from the plumber’s skull and he seemed to be acting against his will. The worst of these newly released memories had an enormous being with the appearance of a twisted amalgamation of both Luigi and the jester. “ _And now it is time for the destruction to begin.._.” a voice rang out, smooth as silk yet dripping with malice like honey laced with cyanide. “ _Let it begin with you, as you wallow in helplessness like upside-down turtles!_ ”

For once in his life, Fawful was speechless. He thought he had only stumbled onto a moment in Luigi’s past where he briefly decided to moonlight as a villain, as well as a hidden talent for machinery that he could appreciate. This...this was just horrible to watch. Luigi’s reactions were too much to bear; he was very clearly traumatized by the memories that had been forced to resurface. He was so stunned by this that he couldn’t even register hearing Luigi’s screams of dread. Suddenly he felt a shooting pain in his arm. This brought him back to reality and he could see Luigi’s expression had darkened considerably. “...you son of a...” Luigi muttered darkly, the remnants of the lightning strike sparking off his hand.

“I have apology!” Fawful exclaimed, backing up slightly. He knew exactly what the expression Luigi had meant; after all, as someone who regularly had fury, he’d be the best one to recognize it in others. “I did not have knowing...I could not have knowing—”

“ ** _SHUT UP!_** ” Luigi shouted, his voice unnaturally loud and echoing throughout the expanse. “ ** _You don’t know what it’s like to be literally forced to fight your own brother! I could’ve KILLED him! I could’ve killed Mario and I had no way to stop myself!_** ” He held out his hand and electricity built up in his palm, the writhing mass of lightning building and growing until it took on the form of a hammer. He took hold of the lightning hammer and, in a blind rage, swung it at Fawful, who only just managed to jump out of the way. “ ** _And then YOU come along and force me to remember EVERY SICK DETAIL ABOUT THE WHOLE THING! Get out of my FACE!_** ”

Fawful screamed as Luigi took another swing at him with the lightning hammer. A thick pillar shot up in between them, blocking any further strikes. Fawful took the chance and bolted, running as fast as he could away from the enraged Luigi and the memories responsible for bring such a drastic change in the normally gentle man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (original post date September 8, 2015)


	6. Ghost Flu and the Sea of Fury

He woke with a start, along with a killer migraine. “Mama mia, what was I doing last night...” he muttered to himself. It was only then that he recalled everything. The memories that the previous day had broken from their mental prison. The terror he had felt upon rediscovering what he had locked away, and how that terror quickly changed to rage. The fright present in Fawful’s voice as he swung the lightning hammer at him—

Wait. Where was Fawful? He searched his mind, but could detect no trace of the bean, no hint of that inner voice that couldn’t get the order of words right. Confused and partially elated, he ran down to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and saw...there had been no change. His skin was still green, his right eye still bright red, his vision still blurry, the hair on his head still the same dark hue that belonged to Fawful and not Luigi. Fawigi shook his head in disbelief. “What’s going on?” he asked. “If we’re still merged, how come I can’t hear him?”

Fawigi ran into the other room. E. Gadd was not sleeping on the cot in the main research room, so he made his way to the bedroom where the elderly professor was, for once in a blue moon, sleeping in his own bed. He shook him awake nervously. “Professor, please wake up!” he said as he shook him. “I think something’s wrong!”

Gadd groggily turned over, squinting at Fawigi through the haze of sleep and early morning myopia. “Whassa matter?” he mumbled.

“Something happened last night,” Fawigi said. “Some of Luigi’s memories resurfaced, some that are really hard to deal with, and Fawful saw them. It ended up...well, let’s just say it ended badly and now I can’t feel any hint of Fawful anymore. I’m just Luigi now in my mind, but our bodies are still stuck together. I’m worried I might’ve done something terrible.”

“Now, let’s not jump to conclusions, feller,” Gadd said as he put on his glasses. “He could just be somewhere deep in there tryin’ to give you some time to calm down.”

Fawigi shook his head. “You don’t know how Fawful works,” he said. “Despite what I’ve learned of him these past couple days, he is still one of the most in-your-face, abrasive individuals I’ve ever met. I left him alone when he needed it, but I don’t think he’d give the same courtesy. Besides, ever since we got merged I could hear both his thoughts and my own whenever we were awake.”

The two were interrupted by a knock on the door. Gadd checked the alarm clock by his bed; 9:30 AM. “Who could that be so early in the morning?” he asked. He went over to the wall and pushed a large button to turn on the screen just above them.

The person standing at Gadd’s door had a concerned look on his face. He adjusted his bright red cap and knocked on the door again. “Hello, Professor?” Mario called out. “Are you home?”

Fawigi tensed up at seeing his brother (or now technically half-brother?) just outside. “Agh, no!” he exclaimed. “He can’t see me like this!” He ran out of the room, while Gadd calmly made his way to the front door.

As Gadd opened the door, Mario’s face brightened. “Oh, Professor, thank goodness you’re here,” he said, relieved. “Luigi went out a couple days ago and he didn’t come home. It’s not like him to be gone like that without letting someone know first. You wouldn’t happen to know where he’s gone, would you?”

Gadd hesitated. He couldn’t bring himself to outright lie to Mario as, in some sense, he knew exactly where Luigi was. Still, Luigi’s reaction to seeing Mario at his doorstep made him uneasy. There must be something about this Fawful guy that didn’t sit well with the Bros. “...Yes, he’s here,” Gadd finally said. “Came here the night before last. I’m sure he...just forgot to tell you.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Mario said, sighing with relief. “So can I come in and make sure he’s oka—”

“NO!” Gadd suddenly shouted, blocking Mario’s entrance to the door. “He’s, uh...he caught a nasty strain of...ghost...flu.”

“Ghost flu?” Mario raised an eyebrow at this statement. “That’s a thing?”

Gadd nodded, “Yeah, that’s it, ghost flu, definitely a real thing,” he insisted. “Highly contagious in the stage he’s at, I’m just tryin’ to help him get through it at the moment.”

As if on cue, Fawigi, who had been listening from another room, began to make pained groaning sounds. “Oh god whyyyyy!” he shouted, trying to sound like someone in both physical and emotional duress. “Porcelain goddess, have mercy on meeee! My hole is on fiiiireeee!” To make the illusion a bit more... _convincing_ , he also made sounds that were akin to one vomiting.

“Yeeaaaah, it’s one of those sicknesses that gets purged from both ends,” Gadd said with a nervous laugh. “I’ve got him taken care of with all the remedies I’ve developed over the years, don’t worry.”

“Well, it’s good that he’s in capable hands at this time,” Mario said. He turned to leave, but then realized something. “Hang on,” he added. “If it’s so contagious, why aren’t _you_ sick too?”

“Immunity, feller!” Gadd replied, a bit too quickly. “How do you think I’ve developed the remedies that’re getting your brother back on his feet? I’ve tested ‘em all on myself, and I’ve got immunity for a long time to come.”

“Well, still, I think I should make sure he’s okay—”

“Nope, you can’t. Ghost flu. Bad stuff.”

“But—”

“It’s for your own health, trust me.”

“I just—”

“Luigi’ll be fine with me, promise. Now run along before you catch it yourself.” And before Mario could question any further, Gadd slammed the door in his face and locked it. “That could’ve gone better,” he muttered to himself. He turned and made his way into the hall where Fawigi was hiding. “That was some... _interesting_ acting there, feller,” Gadd chuckled.

Fawigi laughed nervously. “Well, you were going for the whole sickness angle, so I thought I’d just play it up,” he said.

“And play it up you certainly did.”

“Now that you mention it,” Fawigi said, “I do feel a bit light-headed...is that ghost flu even a thing?”

“Yes and no,” Gadd admitted. “But don’t worry, you’ve spent more than enough time around ghosts to develop an immunity of your own. At least Luigi has, not too sure about Fawful. Speaking of, has Fawful come back yet?”

Fawigi shook his head. “Still no sign of him anywhere,” he said worriedly. “I can’t help but think something bad happened.”

Suddenly Fawigi’s eyes opened wide. He doubled over, clutching his head in pain. He then fell to the floor, unconscious. “F-Fawigi?” Gadd half-shouted. He shook Fawigi, but got no response. “Oh, this can’t be good...”

\-----

Luigi felt himself being pulled into a dark place, not the same kind of darkened expanse he had become familiar with that would light itself with millions of green stars, but a sinister and overwhelming sort of darkness. It was vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.

**_You again?_ **

Luigi jumped, surprised at the voice he heard. It definitely wasn’t Fawful, and it wasn’t a voice he recognized either. “Wh-who said that?” he asked nervously.

**_The boy cannot be saved. He gave into my darkness long ago._ **

“What are you talking about?” Luigi had an uneasy feeling about the source of the voice. “Seriously, who is this?”

No voice responded, instead a large pair of bright red lights shone in the deepest depths of the encroaching darkness, like burning eyes. Luigi felt as though he was falling inward toward the eyes. Terrified, he flailed about in an attempt to get away, but there was nothing for him to grip onto or push off from. As it seemed like the darkness would swallow him completely, the psychic link tightened around his waist. In an instant, he was pulled away from the eyes, a growl emanating from their direction as his lifeline took their prey out of reach.

He found himself back in the familiar star-studded expanse, pulled out of the sinister darkness like a drowning swimmer from particularly nasty riptide. He looked up to see Fawful, sitting with his back turned to him. “That is not being for you,” Fawful said, an odd lack of any sort of emotion in his voice. “That is not being for anyone.”

“Fawful, you’re okay!” Luigi breathed a sigh of relief. “I got a little nervous when I woke up and it was like you weren’t there...”

“You had nervousness?” Fawful scoffed. “Of coursing you did. Luigi is always having nervousness. The only times he is not having nervousness are when it is not being real or when he is not being himself.”

Luigi glared at the back of Fawful’s head. “Don’t bring that up again,” he said, trying to keep his cool. “Look, I probably overreacted last night, I get that. But right now, I don’t care about the potential years of therapy that reviving those memories may bring! I’m just glad you’re safe!”

“I have no safety,” Fawful said darkly. “Not being with you, and not being in loneliness.” He turned to face Luigi, who leapt back in utter shock. Fawful’s glasses were off, and his eyes were completely blank. “Just let me have the disappearing for reals this time.”

“I’m not gonna let you go out as just a figment of our shared mind!” Luigi shouted. “Now stop talking nonsense and let’s get back into consciousness!”

“...no.”

The ground at Fawful’s feet cracked like the top shell of a frozen lake, a bright orange glow seeping through the crevasses underfoot. Without warning, the ground fell away, revealing a fiery lake of what seemed to be a cartoon representation of lava. Luigi was at the edge and thus able to avoid falling in, but as Fawful was at the epicenter of the break he was not so lucky. He became completely submerged in the boiling fluorescent Kool-Aid, though whether he noticed or not he made no attempt to save himself.

Luigi could only watch in horror as Fawful sunk deeper and deeper into what he now realized was the visualization of the bean’s ever-present and ever-stated fury. If he didn’t act fast, Fawful’s consciousness could be lost forever, and while he had no idea what that would do to their shared body he couldn’t have cared less in the moment. He then saw the tangled mass floating over the perilously heated cocktail and remembered the psychic link between them; Fawful had used it to bring him out of the strange pit of darkness, so maybe he could use it to do the same! “Hold on, Fawf!” he shouted. “I’ve got you!” Luigi felt his end of the psychic link tighten around his waist again, then grabbed onto it and pulled hard. Soon enough, the full length of the line was pulled from the fury pool, along with a burning bean. “Fawful...?” Luigi asked, hesitantly stepping towards Fawful’s limp form. “Are...are you okay...?” 

“...whyyyyyyyy...” Fawful moaned, oblivious to the flames engulfing his body. “Why, why, _why?!_ ” He shakily got to his feet, the fire surrounding him now seeming to emanate directly from his body. “Why did you have needing to be playing heroics NOW?! I had trying to kill you, that should be giving you reason plenty to let me have death, to let me have returning to Cackletta, but no! You and your fink-rat brother always sticking your noses of largeness where they are not belonging!” As he shouted at the plumber, small embers spewed from his mouth and more of the liquid fury dripped down from his eyes like glowing tears.

“Because there’s no reason for you to die twice, dammit!” Luigi shouted. “Since you’ve come back, you haven’t done anything that would warrant dying, and it’s not just because you’ve been stuck with me! You’ve been annoying as all get-out, yes, but in comparison that’s _nothing!_ ” He tried to put a hand on Fawful’s shoulder, but the heat radiating from him was too much for him to even get close. He then remembered what he had done the first night they had been merged. He closed his eyes and concentrated, and a blue flower similar to a Fire Flower sprouted from his feet, a cloud of frost surrounding it. Luigi plucked the Ice Flower from the ground and let the cold air flow throughout him. He gripped Fawful’s shoulder, the chill from his hand cooling down Fawful’s intense fury-driven heat, and the heat likewise warming Luigi. “We’ll get through this,” Luigi said. “I’m here for you if you need me, don’t worry.”

Fawful nodded, his intense heat dissipating and his previously blank eyes regaining their color, one bright red and the other a deep green. “Heh, that explains why our merged form has different colored eyes,” Luigi chuckled. “Your eyes look like boatlights.”

Fawful groaned and covered his eyes. “Have shutting up about my eyes,” he said.

“Oh, hey, I didn’t mean anything about it,” Luigi insisted. “I just meant they’re interesting.”

“They have interest?” Fawful repeated. “Not weirdness?”

“Well, just weird in the way that it’s not common,” Luigi said. “Not weird in a bad way. It’s neat.” He smiled. “We’d better get back out there, E. Gadd might be freaking out.”

“Yes, let us have doing that.”

\-----

Fawigi’s eyes shot open. E. Gadd, looking over him, let out a deep sigh of relief. “I was worried for a second you weren’t comin’ back,” Gadd said. “I’d have to quit ghost research if that were the case, ‘cuz there’s no way I’d be able to keep it up if it had to involve the spirit of such a close friend. You all right now?”

Fawigi nodded weakly. “Yeah, yeah, we are having okayness,” he murmured.

Gadd grinned a bit. “Sounds like Fawful’s back,” he chuckled. “I take it whatever problem you two had got solved, then?”

“Somewhat,” Fawigi said. “At the very least, it is having more closeness to be fixed.”

“Well, then, we’d better get back to work tryin’ to separate you two,” Gadd said with a smile. “Hopefully the excuse I gave to Mario will be enough for however long this’ll take.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (original post date September 13, 2015)


	7. Rain, Beach, and Darkness

The next few days followed a rather simple routine of examining Fawigi’s condition, both physical and mental, with plenty of extra naps in between to compensate the single brain doing the mental work of two. Compared to the first two days, it was fairly uneventful until the day a loud scream came from the bathroom.

“Fawigi, you okay?!” E. Gadd shouted as he burst into the bathroom. “What happened?”

Fawigi was holding onto the side of his face, at least half of his mustache missing and red liquid dripping into the sink, a pair of scissors in the hand not firmly clasped to his cheek. “This was being a mistaaaake!” he whined. “It has all of the pain—I _told_ you not to mess with the mustache, why on earth didn’t you listen to me?! Why does it have such redness?! Because it’s freaking _blood_ , you—aaaugh!”

“...Want me to go grab the first aid stuff?” Gadd asked sheepishly.

“Please do,” Fawigi said, still trying to keep as much of the mess contained as possible.

Gadd left and soon returned with some bandages. Contrary to how much Fawigi had been freaking out, the cut on his face was relatively small and easily managed. “Are you calmed down now?” Gadd asked.

“I am thinking so, yes,” Fawigi said. “I’m just annoyed, that mustache took a lot of work to get it to look right. It will have growing back, fink-rat.” He let out a small laugh.

The rest of the day went along as normal, or at least it went along as what had become their normal. It wasn’t until Fawigi went back to sleep that something new and interesting happened. Over time when in the unconscious mindscape, Luigi and Fawful had taken to sharing their memories with one another, at least ones that they were comfortable with sharing, and Fawful had brought over one of his with his characteristic wide grin. “I am having an idea!” Fawful exclaimed.

“An idea about what?” Luigi asked, intrigued.

“An idea about the memory sharing,” Fawful said. He placed his memory onto the ground like a sheet of paper, then stretched out its corners until it was roughly the size of a picnic blanket. “I had the accidental placing of a hand into one, so I am thinking we could have entrance to the memory scene proper...” He grinned. “Could be a time of fun.”

Fawful lightly poked the memory, letting a ripple emanate from where he had touched it. He then put his hand into it, and upon feeling no ill effects leapt into it entirely, the gravity of the scene taking over and making him land onto what from their perspective would’ve been a wall. He shot his arm back out and asked, in an uncharacteristic friendly manner, “Will you have coming?”

“I dunno,” Luigi said nervously. “Is this really something I wanna be a part of?”

“I had picking a memory of safety,” Fawful said. “None of the worries.”

Luigi nodded, then carefully stepped into the memory. As he fell into the scene, he could feel the sensation of soft raindrops on his face. He sat up and found himself in a wooded area in the rain. He looked around and saw Fawful sitting in the rain, a look of utter bliss on his face. “So...what is this?” Luigi asked.

“It is being the rain,” Fawful said calmly. “Just the rain.”

“Just the rain?” Luigi chuckled lightly. “Nothing really significant?”

“Noping, just the happies of rain.” Fawful stood up, then undid his cape. He laid his cape on the ground and took off his glasses as well, putting them down carefully on his cape. In a burst of childlike glee, he ran and danced in the rain.

It was odd for Luigi to see Fawful like this, like he really was just a child who grew up in the wrong environment. “Having fun there, Fawf?” Luigi asked.

“Oh, yes!” Fawful exclaimed. “I am having all the fun!” Suddenly soft glowing lights shone from the bases of the trees. Bioluminescent mushrooms were growing at the bases of the trees, and they had chosen this particular moment to bestow their majesty unto the world. “This is being the part of most greatness,” he said, the most serene smile on his face.

“Wow,” Luigi gasped. “I can see why you like this so much.”

“This is being what gives me calm,” Fawful said. “Having thoughts of rain and nature bits with shinies. It brings happiness to Fawful.”

“I have something similar,” Luigi said. “A memory I go to when I’m scared or upset. Maybe I could show it to you, since you shared such a personal thing with me.”

They exited the memory of rain and soon Luigi found the memory of his own that he was looking for. He expanded it in a similar manner that Fawful had with his and climbed in, the scene of the memory changing him into a young boy. Fawful followed and upon entering felt the warm, inviting beams of sunlight dance across his face. He grasped the sand underneath him and let it fall through his fingers. The sound of crashing waves echoed through the distance, as well as the sounds of jovial laughter.

Fawful looked around. Luigi was nowhere to be found, at least not anywhere close by. He made his way out onto the beach proper and saw a family setting up for a day at the beach. As he approached the family, he saw that one of the two rowdy boys running about was the young Luigi. He figured that the boy dressed in red was a young Mario, and the two adults with them were their parents. The mother saw him and waved, and the young Luigi ran up to him. “So what do you think so far?” Luigi asked, smiling.

“I am thinking this child that is you has some sort of familiarity,” Fawful said. “Aside from the resemblance to the Luigi that is an adult, any of way.”

“Haha, what?” Luigi asked, more in a “quit being silly” way than an actual inquiry. “C’mon, let’s go play!”

“Play?” Fawful couldn’t remember the last time he genuinely played, at least not in a manner that didn’t involve ruining someone else’s day in some fashion.

“You know how to play, right?” Luigi laughed. “Just goofin’ off or whatever, that kind of thing.” He tapped Fawful’s shoulder with a playful cry of “You’re it!” and ran off in childish excitement. Fawful smiled and gave chase, giggling with glee. The two ran around, not a care in the world for either one, until a dark cloud passed over the sun. An eerie coldness washed over the entire beach, one that didn’t seem like it belonged in the memory. Luigi, now returned to the appearance of his present day adult self, glanced at Fawful in confusion. “This never happened,” Luigi said, shaking his head. “This day at the beach was warm with clear skies the whole time we were there.”

“Something of badness is having intrusion, possibly,” Fawful murmured. He shook slightly. “It has familiarity...”

Without warning, Fawful took off toward the nearby dock. “Wait, Fawful!” Luigi called as he ran after him. “Where are you going?!”

“I can feel where it is being!” Fawful shouted. “I am knowing what our problem is being now! I had bringing it in, I can have making us be rid of it!” He ran to the edge of the dock and paused briefly, turning around and giving Luigi a smile. “I will have returning, no worries.” He waved, then let himself fall backwards off the dock with a splash.

As Fawful sank down into the cool ocean waters, he could hear the muffled calling of Luigi, presumably trying to find out if he was all right. He felt fine aside from a sense of unease, but he didn’t bother to respond as he knew Luigi would have the same problem hearing him through the water that he was experiencing. Oddly, he felt no need to hold his breath, though he presumed this was due to the water not being _actual_ water but the mere memory of such.

He hit the bottom and saw it sitting a few feet away from him. It looked like a misshapen starfish, but it was almost completely black. More than just black; it looked like a very hole in the space around it. A strange yet eerily familiar energy emanated from the object, making Fawful feel both excited and slightly sick. “Darkness,” he murmured, ignoring the bubbles escaping from his mouth. The remnant of the Dark Star twitched as he addressed it.

**_There you are. You arrived a bit early, but soon we can be rid of this pathetic man. You will be free to have your conquest._ **

“Conquest, huh?” Mere days ago, at least from his perspective, Fawful would think these words music to his ears. To be rid of at least one of the men who had not only destroyed his mentor and the closest person he had to a mother, but had also ruined his own kingdom-conquering plans? That would’ve been gold! But whether it was the influence of having spent so much time literally attached to Luigi or just a slight bit of...dare he admit, goodness that was already with him, the Dark Star’s proposal stirred that feeling he knew all too well and was only so quick to proclaim its presence. “I will be having conquest, yes,” Fawful said. He bent down and picked up a large, sharply-tipped spiral shell. “But it will not be with you!” He raised the shell up and, all pretense of the water around him being a physical presence gone in a brief moment, brought it down onto the Dark Star.

It was over in seconds. The Dark Star remnant, rather than behaving like a stabbed animal, shattered like glass or ceramic. The beach and ocean scene around the two dissolved away, leaving them floating in the starry expanse. The massive tangle in the psychic link between them rippled, then the kinks in its form began to right themselves. Soon it was no longer a tangled mess, but a neat spiral similar to the typical imagining of a galaxy. The spiral began to swirl in such a way that it was unwinding itself until it was a straight line. Fawful and Luigi glanced at each other briefly before the link finally split.

\-----

**_CRASH._ **

The sudden impact shattered a handful of beakers full of what was more than likely ectoplasm or else some strange chemical concoction, and a foot ended up being put right through the drywall. Once again, E. Gadd came running into the room. “All right, what’s wrong THIS ti—” he began, but he paused when he saw the scene before him. He saw the shattered beakers and the hole in the wall, but at the moment he didn’t care. “Well, wouldja look at that!” he exclaimed.

“Have looking at what?” He could barely see anything through the haze of myopia—he suspected his glasses had been knocked away during whatever just happened. He tried to pull his leg out of the hole it had just put in the wall, but one of his arms wasn’t responding very well and felt really weird, like it was wrapped in whatever the tactile equivalent of static would be. He glanced over to where he had been thrown from and gasped. Through his nearsighted haze he could see not one, but two people-shaped blobs. “L-Luigi?”

Luigi removed Fawful’s glasses from his face, since as the full strength of both his eyes and the glasses had been restored they were causing him massive eye strain. “We did it!” he exclaimed. “We’re back to normal!” He then looked down at Fawful, still trying to remove himself from the wall, and grimaced. “Well, for the most part.”

“Why are you making that face of badness?” Fawful asked. He then saw exactly what Luigi was looking at. His barely functioning arm, which he had believed had merely fallen asleep due to having a similar sensation, was simply not there. Well, “not there” was not entirely accurate—his arm was normal to a point just below the shoulder, where it then devolved into a dark, spindly multi-jointed spaghetti-like idea of a limb, flailing about as it tried uselessly to grasp anything and its needle-like fingers passing straight through every solid thing it came into contact with. He looked down and saw that not only was his arm disfigured in such a manner, but the leg that wasn’t foot-wedged into the wall was as well. “Well,” he groaned. “This is just being a thing of perfection.”

“Maybe it’s a side-effect of trying to come back?” Luigi asked. “I mean that does kind of look like the arms of that bug form you had before...well....”

Gadd watched as Fawful’s disfigured arm tried and failed to pick up even the simplest of physical objects, nodding as he made his observations. “That would explain how you two got merged in the first place,” he said. “Hold on, I have a simple fix for this.” He made his way into the other room, soon returning with a needle filled with some kind of iridescent liquid. “Fawful, was it?” Gadd asked. “Can I see your good arm for a second?”

Fawful still didn’t have his glasses so he couldn’t properly see what Gadd was holding, so he was reasonably skeptical. Still, he held out his arm. Gadd pulled up Fawful’s sleeve and quickly put the needle in and injected the liquid, causing the bean to let out a yelp. “Wh-what is that being that you stabbed into me?!” he shouted.

“Concentrated liquid power star,” Gadd said. “Give it a second to take effect.”

Fawful looked at his disfigured arm and watched in awe as the shoulder stump slowly grew out to where his elbow once was, then to his wrist, and his hand completely reformed soon after. As he had been watching his arm regrow, his similarly disfigured leg had reformed as well. “Th-thanking to you, Professor!” Fawful half-squeaked. “I had worry that this would have permanence!” With both arms fully functional, he finally managed to pull his leg out of the wall.

“Well, glad that’s all settled,” Luigi said. “Oh, I bet you want your stuff back now, huh? I’m not really the cape-wearing type, to be honest...”

It was then that Fawful realized he was wearing Luigi’s hat. He laughed and removed it, seeing that the face that had previously been emblazoned on it had changed back to its signature L. He handed it back to Luigi, exchanging it with his glasses. He put his glasses back on and saw that Luigi was indeed wearing his cape. “Red is not being your color,” Fawful chuckled.

“Why do you think I wear green instead?” Luigi asked as he undid the clasp on the cape. “Aside from just preferring green, anyway.” He handed the cape back to Fawful, who quickly put it on and twirled a bit in delight. “So...what are you gonna do now, Fawful?”

“Hmm...I am not knowing,” Fawful admitted. “I might have the start of making plans for more kingdom-conquering, who has knowledge.” He lowered his glasses so Luigi could see his teasing wink.

“Don’t get into trouble too quickly, now,” Luigi said, raising an eyebrow.

“I have no promising!” Fawful exclaimed with a laugh. He turned and made his way swiftly to the door, then looked back at Luigi and the professor. “Again, Professor, thanking to you,” he said. “Also, the dandelion jelly had deliciousness.”

“No problem,” Gadd said with a smile. Fawful returned the smile and ran out the front door, giggling with glee.

“I’d better get going, too,” Luigi said. “Wouldn’t want to keep Mario waiting for any longer than necessary.” He made his way to the door as well, making sure to give Spoopy a little pat before leaving.

With both Fawful and Luigi gone, E. Gadd picked up the bandage that had been left behind from their formerly merged form. He went to throw it away, but something occurred to him upon examining it. The crusted blood left over from Fawigi’s wound could prove useful somehow, even if only by providing interesting research material. He placed the bandage into a small sample container and sealed it for future study.

\-----

Luigi ran up the path to his house in glee. Less than a week away from home and he was so glad to be back. He knocked on the door and called out, “Mario! I’m hooome!”

The door opened and Mario ran at Luigi to give him the biggest hug. “Welcome home, bro!” he exclaimed. “You doin’ all right now? That ghost flu all taken care of?”

“Uh, yeah, all taken care of,” Luigi said. “No more sickness, no longer contagious, all better.”

“That’s good,” Mario said as they went into their house. “I’m just glad you’re back.”

“I’m glad to be back,” Luigi said happily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (original post date September 16, 2015)

**Author's Note:**

> (original post date August 19, 2015)


End file.
